"My faithful negro, however," continued the colonel, pausing at this
point to puff out another cloud of smoke from his fragrant
cigar,--"well, he was unable to learn anything of the Haytians, though
he tried to make friends of them, for they always stopped their talk
amongst themselves on his approach, and would only reply to his
overtures in monosyllables expressive of distrust, accompanied by
contemptuous gestures that angered poor Cato greatly, for, as he
considered that he belonged to me, he felt the insult to be directed not
only at himself but at the whole family.
"`Golly, massa!' he said to me after a couple or so of attempts that
proved fruitless to ingratiate himself into the confidence of the gang,
`you just wait; I catch dem black raskils nappin' by-an'-bye, you see,
massa. You see, "speshly dat tarn markiss!"'
"He managed this sooner than he thought, and pretty smartly too, for the
very next day he caught the noble scoundrel, who was his particular
aversion, walking off with a pair of pistols from Captain Alphonse's
cabin. On Cato coming up and stopping him in the very act, the
`marquis' put down the pistols quickly, saying in his off-hand manner
that he was merely examining the locks, remarking how well they were
made. `But,' said Cato, `guess he no bamboozle dis chile!'
"The following day, sirs, was the seventh of November, last Friday, that
awful, that terrible day!
"Cato, who had been away forward early in the morning to see about our
breakfast, came back aft with a terrified face.
"`Yay, massa,' said he, `guess dose tam niggars up to sumfin'! I'se
hear um say dey smell de lan' an' de time was 'rive to settle de white
trash, dat what dey say, an' take ship. One ob de tam raskel see me
come out of gully, an' say cut um tongue out if I'se tell youse, massa!'
"Of course on hearing this I put Captain Alphonse immediately on his
guard, and we locked up all the spare arms and ammunition until we
should require the same, excepting our own revolvers and three other
pistols, which we served out to the two mates and the boatswain, all of
whom were good men and brave Frenchmen. Monsieur Boisson, when he was
asked if he would have one, shrugged his shoulders and said he was a
simple passenger, he did not understand fighting--it was not his affair;
while little Mr Johnson said he was an Englishman and preferred using
his fists. Don Miguel had a pistol of his own.
"Jingo! The emergency we dreaded came soon enough, sir; indeed, sooner
than we expected, and it was fortunate we had been forewarned!
"It was just after the noontide hour, I recollect that well, for Captain
Alphonse had just taken the altitude of the sun to ascertain our
position, when, as he came up from his cabin where he had gone to
consult his chronometers and work out `the reckoning,' as you sailors
call it, that that black devil the `marquis' mounted the poop with a
simpering and fawning air.
"`Ah well, captain,' said he, with a very polite bow, `where do you make
us out to be, monsieur? Near the Bermudas yet?'
"`My word, yes,' replied Captain Alphonse. `We are some ten leagues or
so the westward of the islands, but we're bearing up now, as you see, to
reach them.'
"`And what time, monsieur,' said the `marquis,' speaking louder so that
some of the other niggers who were on the deck below could hear what he
said. `Do you think it will be possible for us to land? My companions
and myself, monsieur, as you can well imagine, are most anxious to get
ashore as soon as possible, so that we may procure a ship to take us on
to Havana.'
"`But, yes, your anxiety is natural enough,' responded poor Captain
Alphonse, suspecting nothing from this. `I hope to approach near enough
to Port Saint George to put you ashore some time in the afternoon.'
"`_Ohe_, below there!' cried out the Haytian in reply to this,
addressing his companions in the waist, who, I noticed, were gradually
edging themselves more and more aft. `Do you hear that, my brave boys?
We are going to land at last. Get the boat ready!'
"This was evidently a signal, for he shouted out the last words in a
still higher key than that in which he had been speaking.
"`You need not hurry, my friend!' said the captain, surprised at this
order and smiling at the Haytian's impulsiveness, as he thought it.
`There will be plenty of time for lowering the boat when we come in
sight of land.'
"`I think differently, monsieur,' rejoined the other, scowling and
assuming an arrogant tone for the first time. `I say the time is
_Now_!'
"This he yelled out at the top of his voice.
"Instantly the gang of blacks made a rush at the poop on both sides at
once, and Captain Alphonse clutched at his revolver, which he had in his
pocket, but was unable to get it out in time.
"Mine, however, was in my hand and ready cocked."
"Houly Moses!" ejaculated Garry O'Neil, his Irish blood making him all
attention now at the mere mention of fighting. "I hope ye let 'em have
it hot, sor!
"Guess I did!" replied Colonel Vereker grimly, dropping unconsciously
into his native vernacular, which up to now he had almost seemed to have
forgotten from his long residence amongst a Spanish-speaking race. "You
may bet your bottom dollar on that, sir! I aimed at that scoundrel the
`marquis,' but he jumped backward in his fright and his foot catching in
one of the ringbolts, he tumbled right over the poop-rail on to the deck
below; the shot I had intended for him dropping the black pilot, his
constant companion, and who was invariably behind him. _He_ dropped
down as dead as a herring!
"Don Miguel, who luckily had just come up from the saloon, being handy
with his revolver from the rough times he had experienced, like myself,
in Venezuela, settled another darkie; while little Johnson, the
Englishman, caught up a long hand-spike, bigger than himself, and with
it knocked down two of the Haytians to his own cheek.
"Madame Boisson, meanwhile, was screaming for her husband, her brave
Hercules, to come to the rescue; but the `brave Hercules' had locked
himself in his cabin, as my little Elsie told me afterwards; for
fortunately the poor child was not feeling well and I had desired her to
remain below during the hot noontide heat of the sun; and, she also
said, she could hear him crying and sobbing and calling down
imprecations on everybody, including `my wife' and himself for both
being in such a position, Madame Boisson hammering at the door all the
time, and, after finding he would not reopen to her appeal for help,
apostrophising him as a coward! a pig!
"During this time we were pretty busy on deck, the second mate,
Basseterre, and another French seaman, who was with him in the crossjack
yard, having come down from aloft to our assistance. Captain Alphonse
got his revolver out, when he and Don Miguel and I giving them a volley
altogether, and the others supporting us with what weapons they had, we
rushed the rascals off the poop quicker than they came up, the lot
returning to the forecastle along with the `marquis,' who, I was very
glad to see, had cut his face considerably by his tumble.
"Captain Alphonse thereupon, seeing the coast clear, sang out for Housi,
his second officer, and the boatswain, who he thought were away forward,
to come up aft and join us, so that we might all be together, but
instead of these men, Cato, my own black servant ran up the poop-ladder
and told us in much trepidation that Monsieur Housi, with the boatswain
Rigault and one of the French sailors, were imprisoned in the forepeak,
while the two white sailors and the steward were hard and fast in the
main hold, whither they had descended to get some provisions, the
mutineers slipping on the hatchway cover over them, on the `marquis,'
that devil, giving the signal!"
"Ah, my poor fellows!" cried Captain Alphonse. "That, then, means there
are only ourselves left. Good heavens! What shall we do?"
"Why, hoist a signal of distress," I suggested at once. "We are near
Bermuda, on the cruising ground of the English men-of-war; and as these
scoundrels have no friends or assistance, I daresay we'll be able to
hold out here until some vessel bears up to our aid!"
"`Good, my friend,' replied Captain Alphonse, who with Basseterre, the
second mate, and Don Miguel, remained to keep guard with their
revolvers, both seated on top of the skylight hatchway, which commanded
the approaches to the poop by way of the ladders, while I, with the last
of the white sailors, ran aft. Then I called out, `Hoist the French
flag!'
"I knew that the locker with the flags was in the wheel-house, close to
the taffrail, and there being no one to interfere with us, the negro who
had been attending the helm having bolted the moment I pulled out my
revolver at the first alarm, the traitor flying to join the other
mutineers, my sailor and I soon ferretted out an old ensign, the
Tricolour; when, binding it on to the signal halliards, we hoisted it
about half-way up the peak of our spanker, whence it could best be seen
by a passing ship."
"Did you know what that signal meant, colonel?" said Captain Applegarth
in an inquiring tone, "that you had a death aboard, eh?"
"Si, senor. Oh yes, of course," repeated the colonel, correcting
himself almost as soon as he spoke for his lapse again into the Spanish
tongue. "There were half a dozen dead Haytians there, whom, by the way,
Captain Alphonse and I presently pitched over the side! But, beyond
that, sir, I believe all sailors regard a flag hoisted in that way,
`half-mast high,' as it is termed, to be a signal of distress!
"Without doubt, sir," answered the skipper. "I was only testing your
nautical experience, that's all!"
"I am glad then, I did not make a blunder about it, as I thought I had
done from your question," returned Colonel Vereker, quite seriously, not
noticing that the skipper was only poking fun at him in his way and did
not mean anything beyond a bit of chaff. "Well, sir, after hoisting the
flag the French sailor and I seized the opportunity to lash the helm
amidships so as to keep the _Saint Pierre_ on her course, for we could
not spare him to do the steering, and Captain Alphonse and Don Miguel,
with the plucky little Englishman and myself, had all our work to do
watching the mutineers with our revolvers!
"After a time, as the rascals kept pretty quiet in their part of the
ship, and as my poor little daughter Elsie had been a long time now shut
up below, I thought she might come up on the poop to get a breath of
fresh air while it was still light; there being no fear of the blacks
assailing us again so long as they knew we could see to shoot straight
and had our weapons handy!
"So I sent Cato down to fetch her on deck, and she came up the next
moment, all full of curiosity and alarm, as you may imagine, the little
one wanting to know what had occurred; for the reports of my revolver
and the subsequent stillness had occasioned her great fright, Madame
Boisson and her husband, the `brave Hercules,' being but poor
comforters.
"All at once, while I was explaining to her about the flag, telling her
that we had hoisted it in order to summon any passing ship to our
assistance, she suddenly went to the side and looked over the bulwarks
towards the north.
"The next moment she gave vent to a cry of joy.
"`Oh, my father,' she suddenly exclaimed. `You have only just hoisted
the flag in time. There's a big steamer! Look, look! there it is, and
coming up to help us!'
"`Where? where? Where is it? I cannot see it. Nonsense, Elsie; you
are dreaming, my child!' I said, looking out eagerly to where she
pointed, but could see nothing. `There's no ship there, little one!'
and I felt angry at the false alarm.
"`But, my father, you are wrong,' still insisted the child, as positive
as you please. `I can see the vessel there in the distance quite
plainly. See how the black smoke comes puffing out of the chimneys.'
"I laughed at this.
"`Little darling,' said I, `there was no ship, and there are no
"chimneys" on board ships at sea. Sailors call them funnels, my dearest
one.'
"She pretended to pout on my thus catching her tripping in her talk.
"`Well, my father,' said she, with a shrug of her shoulders, as is her
habit sometimes, `I may be wrong about the chimneys, but I am not wrong
about seeing a ship. Why, my father, there she is now, coming closer
and closer, and quite near; so near that I can see--yes, I can see--I am
quite sure--a big boy there. Look, look, father, dear! There he is in
front of the smoke. He has quite a pleasant face.'
"Elsie turned in my direction as she spoke, and, though I was still
gazing all the while, I could see nothing, and I was vexed, very vexed
with my little girl for her persistency in the matter.
"`Why, it has gone--quite disappeared!' she cried out the instant after,
on rushing to the side and looking over. `What does it mean? Why did
she not come and help if she saw the flag?'
"`You have dreamt it, little one,' I replied shortly, as I had done
before. `It's a freak of the imagination, and you fancied it, you funny
little woman.'
"But it was a curious incident, though, sir, was it not, at such a time,
with our hearts all full of expectancy and hope?"
Captain Applegarth was greatly excited by the narrative, and so, it may
readily be believed, was I.
He asked abruptly, "When did this happen? Tell me, colonel, at once.
It is strange--very so!"
The other looked up with surprise, while Mr Stokes stared at him with
wonder, and the Irishman opened his big blue eyes wide to the full.
"I have already told you, sir," replied Colonel Vereker very quickly.
"As I told you before, it was the seventh of November--last Friday."
"Yes; but I mean what time of the day, sir?"
"Oh, I should think about five o'clock in the afternoon. Perhaps a
little later, as the sun was going down, I recollect, at the time."